My Minx adopt an "orphan accessory" game - poking fun or just offensive?

[Jan. 26th, 2010|04:50 pm]

Matilda Battersby

A new online game aimed at pre-teen girls encourages players to buy orphans as “virtual fashion accessories”, administer contraceptives, and select from a range of character statuses including “preggers”, “horny” and “looking for rumpy pumpy”.

The My Minx game, developed by British firm Blighty Arts, requires players to choose highly sexualised features for their “minx” alter egos (including breast and waist size) and clothe them in revealing outfits and lingerie.

Once a “minx” has been created players can choose their “orphan accessories” from a virtual orphanage populated by children based on so-called “celebrity orphans” including Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s children Pax, Maddox and Zahara.

The orphans’ characteristics are racially stereotyped: Cambodian Maddox is said to be fan of eating cockroaches while Ethiopian Zahara’s favourite food is “guinea pig”; and Monglian Jamiyan, modelled on Ewan McGregor’s daughter, apparently enjoys eating rats.

Players can go binge drinking, clubbing, pull men and then decide whether or not to take the morning after pill – and with players as young as seven-years old it is understandable that parent groups including Parentkind have expressed disapproval.

Blighty Arts claims on its website to “create artistic well researched and engaging on-line entertainment [with] a guiding set of principles that drive our business and influence our actions.”

The company’s director Chris Evans told The Telegraph: "It is nonsense to suggest our game is a bad influence on young …We should let them grow up making their own decisions about the games they play. The game teaches children about the world while poking fun at celebrity adoptions.”